On song
IT’S a big Christmas cheer this week for the wonderful ladies of A Choired Taste choir in Carmarthen.
They’ve been blown away by the response to their festive online music video.
Having set themselves an initial target to raise £1,000 for the Mind charity, they have already raised nearly £1,500.
The choristers have been so encouraged by the response to the video that they have increased their target to raise £2,000 for Mind.
The choristers, led by Sarah Kirby, enlisted the help of singers from the Carmarthen community, so the video features a grand total of 84 ladies singing.
The choir have a Justgiving page set up at www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/achoiredtaste20 to receive donations.
Musical director Sarah said: “Two weeks ago, we released this video to raise money for the amazing charity, Mind. We are pleased to say that we have raised £1465 (as of Tuesday morning) which is beyond our target of £1,000, but we would love to get to £2,000 to help this much-needed charity.
“Christmas can be a difficult time for people, especially considering the year that we have all had. By donating you could be helping a neighbour, friend, family member, when they need it most. Or you could need help yourself.”
It’s not the first time the choir has devoted time and energy to raising cash for charity this year.
Musical director Sarah Kirby is well known in Llanelli and West Wales for being a former accompanist for Côr Meibion Llanelli Male Voice Choir under her maiden name of Sarah Thomas.
She loves a challenge and steers the choir through celebrated mashups (distinctive and individual medleys) of popular songs.
Earlier this year, they raised an amazing £4,000, four times their original target, for local charities.
Money raised went towards the Covid-19 ward at Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen Foodbank, Carmarthen Domestic Abuse Services and towards the 5K for Ben appeal which saw four-year-old “superstar” Sam Dixon from Capel Dewi walking 5k a day for charity in memory of his baby brother Benjamin, who died earlier this year after being diagnosed with a condition called congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).
The first video included songs such as A Million Dreams from the Greatest Showman, Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars, Ben E King’s Stand By Me, the Friends TV theme I’ll Be There For You by The Rembrandts, and Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.
Sarah, a music teacher at QE High School in Carmarthen, made the video by getting the choir members to perform at home on internet conferencing programme Zoom.
Members sang different parts at home, forwarded the videos to Sarah and she then edited the clips to make the music video.
You can still see the choir’s first fundraising video on the Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/ achoiredtastecarms/
There is also a link to the latest video and the Justgiving crowdfunding page.
Meanwhile, there’s some amazing news about soprano Ellen Williams, who has been featured a couple of times in this column in recent weeks.
Her latest single, Dancing with the Angels, has soared straight to No1 in the Classical charts.
The daughter of Carmarthen-born harpist Caryl Thomas has been amazed at the response.
She said: “Number One! This is just surreal. I was incredibly grateful to see Dancing with the Angels go into the Official itunes Classical Charts at No1. Thank you so much to everybody who has already downloaded the single, I really hope you’re enjoying it.”
Ellen has performed in many of the UK’S most prestigious concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Royal Concert Hall Glasgow, Bridgewater Hall, the Brangwyn Hall, the Wales Millennium Centre and St David’s Hall, where she was a finalist in the Welsh Singers Showcase in 2018 and performed with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Ellen, 29, lost a whole host of scheduled concert appearances when the coronavirus pandemic hit home.
But she wanted to keep making music, so she sourced a microphone that was perfect for her voice and took some virtual lessons on sound recording so she could start musical projects from home.
She started recording with Bafta award-winning Welsh composer Mark Thomas for his online library of music for TV productions.
Mark has many successful scores to his credit including Shaun The Sheep, ITV’S Brief Encounters and The Magic Roundabout with Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams. He has also created compositions for the BBC, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers.
One of the songs she was working on with Mark was the Welsh lullaby Suo Gân.
It struck a particular chord with Ellen, who has a long-running affinity with folk music – a love fostered by her mum Caryl.
Ellen grew up listening to her mum play folk songs and some of these eventually became part of her own work.
“There was a point in my life where I had a holiday job singing to tourists in Cardiff Castle – tourists loved hearing Welsh folk songs such as The Ash Grove,” she said.
“Folk songs have always been a backdrop to my singing career. I sang folk songs in the Eisteddfod every year when I competed, so I learnt a huge number over that time.”
In 2014, Ellen released a classical crossover EP that was folk-influenced and, when she worked with Mark on Suo Gân, her love for traditional Welsh music resurfaced.
“I could see Suo Gân as a Christmas song,” she said.
“Mark developed it to have more of a Christmas feel, with bells in it, and I wrote the words.”
The result was Dancing With The Angels, a new song set to the tune of Suo Gân and dedicated to all those who lost their lives this year. It has special significance for Ellen, who has lost family members in 2020.
“For families that have lost people, Christmas won’t be the same,” she said. “I hope to offer some comfort in the fact that people are dancing with the angels.”
The single is accompanied by a video by Tristam Thomas, whose previous work has included working on the La La Land trailer and campaigns for Chanel.
This week she is busy recording her contributions to virtual Christmas concerts.
“There is one with Citizens of Song that I’m very excited about because Alfie Boe is in it – so I feel like I’m performing with him!” she said.
For some of the virtual concerts, she will be performing Dancing With The Angels.
You can keep up with the latest news from Ellen on her website - https://www.ellen-williams.co.uk/
The site has links to her (very busy) social media pages and different videos.